Reykjavík Grapevine - jul. 2020, Side 4

What Are Icelanders
Talkin! About?
News and views in the Icelandic
discourse
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: Adobe Stock & Netflix
July 1st came and went,
and while Iceland is
now open to a select few non-
Schengen countries, the US is not
amongst them. This puts Iceland
in the company of most countries
in the world, who have declined
to accept American passport
holders for the time being. While
this news surprised pretty much
no one, what did come out of left
field with deCODE Genetics CEO
Kári Stefánsson announcing that
his company would stop partici-
pating in border testing, effective
July 21st. His reasons basically boil
down to what he considers a lack of
clear communication between the
government and his company, and
a lack of any particular endgame.
Government and health authorities
are optimistic that they can still
conduct border testing smoothly,
so we’ll see how that goes.
A fire that tore through a West
Reykjavík house, killing three and
injuring several others became a
flashpoint on the topic of exploita-
tion of foreign workers in Iceland
after it was brought to light that all
of the residents of that house were
foreign workers, paying exorbitant
rents to live in deplorable condi-
tions in a building that had been
reported on several occasions for
being essentially a slum. Members
of the immigrant community
organised a demonstration call-
ing upon the government to take
greater action to ensure the safety
and wellbeing of foreign workers,
and union officials joined in that
call. The government, however, has
been disappointingly silent, with
Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir
deciding to tweet about a football
match on the day of the tragedy,
and has at the time of this writing
yet to mention a word about it.
In lighter news, the Netflix
movie “Eurovision Song Contest:
The Story of Fire Saga” has been
met with mixed reviews. And by
that we mean that while the non-
Icelandic press—particularly
the BBC—has been offended on
behalf of the Icelandic people for
the movie’s depiction of Iceland-
ers, Icelanders themselves seem
to absolutely love the flick. Even
diehard fans of Eurovision in
Iceland have embraced the film
as a campy romp that accurately
portrays both Eurovision fever and
some aspects of Icelandic culture.
Which is pretty interesting, consid-
ering that not too long ago, we
would get super mad if any media
portrayed Icelanders as anything
other than gorgeous, physically
powerful geniuses. Perhaps we’ve
finally learned to take ourselves
less seriously.
Finally, Iceland held presidential
elections in June. Incumbent Presi-
dent Gu!ni Th. Jóhannesson won
handily, securing over 90% of the
vote and soundly defeating Trump
supporter Gu!mundur Franklín
for the office. Literally no one was
surprised. So that was fun.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 05— 2020First
NEWS
If they don't rep us in 2021 Eurovision we're never watching a Will Ferrell movie again
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Iceland Daddy Gu#ni Th, having just chokeslammed his opponent at the polls
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